Question:

Answer:

tortuous

How to remember it:

Torturous (with a second "r") really does suggest torture, the word it comes from. It's reserved for things that are very unpleasant, painful, difficult, or slow.

But something that is tricky, complicated, or circuitous - such as an overly elaborate plan - is tortuous. Think of twists and turns, and consider a related word: torque, which refers to a force that causes something to rotate.

Question:

Answer:

How to remember it:

Think of the first syllables of immediately and imminent to remember that imminent means "about to occur" - often in a threatening sense.

Eminent means "prominent" or "famous."

As it happens, these words have a shared root: -minent comes from a Latin word meaning "to project" or "to stand out." In imminent, this root originally suggested something like a threatening overhang above your head; in eminent it suggested something conspicuous.

Question:

Did the speaker loose or lose his train of thought?

Answer:

lose

How to remember it:

Think of the related words lost, loser, and loss: they all have just one "o."

Loose and lose cause confusion partly because the spelling of lose is odd: it looks like it should rhyme with nose, but instead it rhymes with shoes. Loose, on the other hand, rhymes with words you'd expect it to rhyme with: goose, caboose, moose, noose (but not, of course, choose.)